2020: Swap & Sound || SIGN-UPS ARE OPEN.

[kindness_says]

Here we go! Swaps in the time of COVID. How are you all doing?

We are expecting a fairly normal swaps season, with a few caveats:

1) International mailing: if you like to swap internationally, that's great! But a lot of countries are not currently shipping to certain locations. So, if you are not in the US or UK, it may be wise to double-check your country's postal restrictions and remind us if, for example, you are in Norway and therefore cannot mail to Australia this year. (We are also looking these things up, but we are fallible!)

2) Postal delays: we always expect delays due to holidays, but we expect them extra in 2020. Therefore we advise against shipping anything that could go stale (e.g. homemade baked goods) this year.

3) Checking in ON TIME: in the interest of getting all packages and pinch-hits out efficiently, all swappers MUST check in on Swaps Central by the end of the last sending day (this year that's Saturday, November 14), unless they have requested an extension.

Please note, we generally grant small extensions without penalty (we know people are busy, and our sending period is short), so we strongly encourage you to ask rather than risk being late. If you are very tardy and/or difficult to communicate with, you may be barred from one or more swaps in the future.


YULESWAPS 2020 SCHEDULE:

+ Sign-up forms are open now and will close on Sunday, October 18, 2020 at 9:00 PM PDT. Click here for a countdown! Tell your friends! Tell your enemies! Tell yourself to set a reminder on your phone!

+ Match-ups will go out the last week of October, probably over a period of a few days (in order to accommodate mail merge sending limits).

+ As noted above, this year's SENDING DEADLINE is Saturday, November 14, 2020. Before signing up, please do a reality/calendar check to make sure you have the time, money, and bandwidth!


REMINDERS:

+ Swaps Central: our all-in-one check-in form! You remember it. Still a thing.

+ Email: please be prepared to contact recipients/respond to senders within 48 hours!

(If you are new, we also suggest emailing us ahead of time at yuleswaps at gmail dot com, so your email will hopefully know we're not spam.)

+ DW/LJ: we will post here after match-ups go out, so everyone knows they definitely did. Please see the FAQ for instructions on how to track the various yuleswaps tags!

+ Sign-ups: now with a confirmation email! And yes, you can edit responses (until sign-ups close).

PLEASE read instructions carefully, and take particular care not to typo your AO3 name or email.

+ Defaulting: can't say it enough... If anything (money, anxiety, life) should happen to you AT ANY POINT in the swapping process, please don't just disappear. Tell us as early as you can, and we'll work it out with you!


And now...
Candyswap 2020: Sweet Security!
Drinkswap 2020: Shelter & Sip!
Bookswap 2020: Snugly Shelved!


Questions? Comments? First check out the FAQ, and then, if that doesn't sort you, feel free to comment either here or there, or email us at yuleswaps at gmail dot com!

Kat (kindness_says) & Livi (anialove)

Comments

[emperor]

The "in the tagset" question - if I'm not particularly interested in a book just because it's in the tagset, but equally don't want to veto books just because they're in the tagset, should I pick the "yes" or "no" option?

[anialove]

I would choose yes, since it covers more bases. You aren't locked into receiving a Yuletide book, but your sender won't automatically ignore all those books.

Either way, you can tell you sender this and other more detailed information once they contact you after match-ups.

[kindness_says]

I would probably pick "no," but I think the fact that Livi said the opposite above means it doesn't matter! Haha. It's meant to encourage sharing of Yuletide books IF people want to, since we're technically a tie-in activity, but it's not binding in any way (of course), and I think the fear of "vetoing" all those books is probably unfounded. As a sender, I'd feel free to send you a book that happened to be nominated for Yuletide even if you'd picked no.

Honestly, now I'm curious how other people have interpreted this question in the past...

Your sender will (hopefully) decide what to send you based on a more extended convo, in the end. I just sometimes make an effort to match people who seem particularly interested in sharing a new fandom.

[bobcatmoran]

One additional thing to keep in mind if you want to swap internationally - check what kinds of shipping methods are available for your country to others and whether that'll make things cost-prohibitive because you'll have to use an express courier or something. For example, Japan Post currently has some pretty strict limits on how things can be sent to the US that's making it super expensive to ship right now.

[anialove]

That's a really helpful tip!

[mechanonymouse]

Do you have to sign up for international shipping through out the world or would it be possible to sign up for European shipping only?

[anialove]

You can absolutely sign up for European shipping only.

The options on the sign-up form are within your country, within your continent, anywhere, or as far away as possible.

There's also an option to drop Kat and me a note about any more specific shipping requests you might have, especially with the current more stringent postal restrictions.

[stasia]

I AM SO EXCITED I CAN'T WAIT ALL THE TASTY TASTY TREATS OMG OMG OMG, ALL HANDS ON DECK!!!!!

[kindness_says]

<3

[karanguni]

Y'all the best for organising this stuff year on year!

[kindness_says]

<3

[morbane]

Enthusiastically seconded!

[kindness_says]

<3!

idk if karanguni will even see this, but people are very excited that the app is now available!

[trialia]

Yay! And yes, as you recommended, I'm skipping candyswap this year, between the mouse problem I currently have & my usual preference for homemade, and the fact that I can't do my usual shelf trawl to fill my box for my recipient. But I've signed up for both bookswap and drinkswap as usual! ♥ You are all awesome for organising this.

[kindness_says]

Your mouse problem is still mildly hilarious to me (although I’m sorry lol). But cool, glad you’re squared away! :)

[(Anonymous)]

I am not sure if I managed to sign up correctly for the book swap. For candy and tea I received emails, but not for books. Could you check that for me? Thanks in advance.

Quin

[kindness_says]

You did! I don’t know why the occasional confirmation is going astray... That happened to someone else, too, though I’m not sure if it was books.

[anialove]

One of my confirmation emails got stuck in my spam folder, but only one. Email can work in mysterious ways.